The Pattern
29 of 38 (76%)
Education sites on legacy frameworks
Source: WebPulse regional + ASEAN scans. WordPress (18) + Drupal (11) dominate across all regions.
13 of 14 (93%)
ASEAN education on legacy
Source: WebPulse ASEAN scan. UP, Ateneo (Drupal), UST, UGM, ITB, Chulalongkorn (WordPress).
Vietnam National University (Next.js)
Only modern education site in ASEAN
Source: WebPulse ASEAN scan. vnu.edu.vn — the sole exception.
Why Universities Don't Move
Universities have three constraints no other industry faces: procurement cycles measured in years, faculty governance over technology decisions, and student information systems that predate the web itself. A CMS migration at a university isn't a tech project — it's a political campaign.
The Cost of Not Moving
Student data on WordPress. Research data on Drupal 7 (EOL). Application portals on legacy PHP. Every one of these is a data protection incident waiting to happen. FERPA in the US, GDPR in Europe, DPDP in India — education institutions face the same compliance pressure as healthcare, with less budget and slower governance.
